A CARIB CRONE. 



29 



struck with the great progress made in civilization by 

 these descendants of cannibals, the fiercest of all the 

 Indian tribes whom the Spaniards encountered. 



The houses extended along the bank, at some dis- 

 tance apart ; and the heat was so oppressive that, be- 

 fore reaching the last, we were about to turn back ; but 

 our guide urged us to go on and see one old woman," 

 his grandmother. We followed and saw her. She 

 was very old ; no one knew her age, but it was consid- 

 erably over a hundred ; and, what gave her more in- 

 terest in our eyes than the circumstance of her being 

 the grandmother of our guide, she came from the isl- 

 and of St. Vincent, the residence of the most indomi- 

 table portion of her race ; and she had never been bap- 

 tized. She received us with an idiotic laugh ; her fig- 

 ure was shrunken ; her face shrivelled, weazened, and 

 wicked ; and she looked as though, in her youth, she 

 had gloried in dancing at a feast of human flesh. 



We returned, and found our friend, the padre, dress- 

 ed in the contents of his pocket-handkerchief, quite a 

 respectable-looking priest. By his side was our steam- 

 boat washbowl, filled with holy water, and in his hand 

 a prayer-book. Augustin stood up, holding the stump 

 of a tallow candle. 



The Caribs, like most of the other Indians of Cen- 

 tral America, have received the doctrines of Christian- 

 ity as presented to them by the priests and monks of 

 Spain, and are, in all things, strict observers of the 

 forms prescribed. In this settlement, the visit of a 

 padre was a rare but welcome occurrence. At first 

 they seemed to have a suspicion that our friend was 

 not orthodox, because he did not speak Spanish ; but 

 when they saw him in his gown and surplice, with the 

 burning incense, all distrust vanished. 



